I have a ~4-7 year old GSD named Hildy. She has several behavioral issues, including DA and reactivity, but what has me puzzled is her inexplicable growling.

A week or so ago, she was lying in the middle of the living room floor, snoozing on and off, and all of a sudden she looked straight up at the ceiling and growled. The fan wasn't on, there was no noise that I could hear (but the TV was on so maybe she heard something out of the ordinary), the cat was sleeping in another room, and I was the only one home with her.

Just now, she was laying at my feet, like she always does, when she started growling. I didn't move, the cat didn't move, the TV was off, there was no noise. Anyway she was just laying there on her side, growling; then she barked her aggressive bark 3x, then I said her name -- I didn't know if she was sleeping and I sure wasn't going to stick my head in her face to check when she was growling. She paused when I said her name, then picked the growling back up in a lower pitch and barked another couple of times. All told, about one full minute of growling + barking.

I already have a vet visit scheduled for next week for a check-up. Are there other conditions I should ask him to look / test for?

But perhaps she senses a squirrel on the roof or a neighbor's dog going for a walk. Frodo will bark when the neighbors dog is let out ( they are fence rivals) or if his buddy ( an old beagle) is going for a walk even though he may be lying far back from the door. Now that spring is here he will run to the door barking and whine to be let out if there's squirrels in the yard. He actually gets aroused instantly just on sensing them.

When something out of the ordinary starts with a middle aged dog, it could be an indication of something going on internally. She can hear sounds you may not like a siren that is a little too far off for your ears to catch.

But perhaps she senses a squirrel on the roof or a neighbor's dog going for a walk. Frodo will bark when the neighbors dog is let out ( they are fence rivals) or if his buddy ( an old beagle) is going for a walk even though he may be lying far back from the door. Now that spring is here he will run to the door barking and whine to be let out if there's squirrels in the yard. He actually gets aroused instantly just on sensing them.

That's the weird thing - she is normally not a growler. If she hears one of her many arch-enemy-dogs either inside or outside, she will run to the front door; if they are close, once she gets to the front door she will bark. Even that happens pretty rarely though; we've arranged our apartment (wall hangings & carpets) to stifle noise. But no growling. She reserves growling for when strangers enter the apartment, and even then it's the growl that morphs into a bark, you know? Like, grrr-bark-bark-bark-bark, catch breath, grr-bark-bark-bark, style.

When something out of the ordinary starts with a middle aged dog, it could be an indication of something going on internally. She can hear sounds you may not like a siren that is a little too far off for your ears to catch.

Certainly will do. She never growls for sirens, either - not much of a growler in general; it usually takes something. As an example, the last time I heard her growl even close to this much was when one night she decided not to sleep right next to the bed, and instead slept in front of the toilet - my husband went to the bathroom at like 2am and didn't turn on the lights, didn't see her, and walked right into her. Even then, it was a quick, maybe 10 second growl.

I'm just starting to worry - we've always had some concerns about her neurologically (when we first got her she circled constantly, only in one direction; she still only circles in that direction when she potties, etc., and she's always trembled ever so slightly 24/7); she just had so many health issues last year that we couldn't afford to test for anything else (rescue did not disclose that she had EPI, so we had to test for everything; we were told she was spayed, she was not; she came to us with mastitis and an ear infection that progressed into a hematoma requiring surgery, etc etc). :X

We have a GSD mix who has some anxiety issues. He will randomly snap out of sleep and bark at the ceiling/ceiling fan/lights. I take this as my cue to know that he is way overtired, way overstimulated, and then I crate him (his crate is completely covered so he can't 'lose it' at stuff that's not there.) I'm not sure if she takes kindly to crating at all, but it might be an option.

We have a GSD mix who has some anxiety issues. He will randomly snap out of sleep and bark at the ceiling/ceiling fan/lights. I take this as my cue to know that he is way overtired, way overstimulated, and then I crate him (his crate is completely covered so he can't 'lose it' at stuff that's not there.) I'm not sure if she takes kindly to crating at all, but it might be an option.

Hopefully that's it!!

She used to love her crate. Then, she had her one and only inside accident (seriously, one accident in 13 mos - she's a rock star ) and my husband put her in the crate so he could clean it without her stepping in it - it was diarrhea; turns out she had worms - he didn't scold her or anything.... anyway since then she refuses to even enter it; the next night I went to crate her as usual and she tried to chew her way through it, bent the bars and made her mouth bleed. We still have the crate just in case she ever wants to go in again but she won't even chase her ball if it bounces in there.

So yeah. I guess you could say she has anxiety issues She is super sensitive

We went to the vet today; no answers yet. Hildy has a highly keratinized nose and scaly elbows and perpetual "vomit breath," which the vet indicated could be symptoms of auto-immune disease, but for now we just tested for tick-borne diseases, which makes sense since we recently moved to an area infested with deer ticks & Hildy has never been vaccinated against Lyme disease. That was negative, so the vet took blood for a full metabolic panel + thyroid function, since Hildy also recently put on quite a bit of weight. She used to be a svelte 65lb but has steadily gained weight despite eating the same diet and being on the same exercise regimen.... today, she weighed 85lb I knew she had gained some weight but holy cow. Guess the winter coat helped hide some of it

I am increasingly concerned about this because Hildy is now exhibiting reactivity towards children. She used to be great with kids, but we haven't had her interact with any, at all, in about 10 mos and now she is reactive towards them, which is not great since we live in an apartment. (We do carry renter's insurance etc but still..)

I'll have some blood work results on Monday. I'm hoping somewhere there is an explanation for all of these changes...

I had / have a similar situation. My boy starts growling and barking for no apparent reason! I kid you not! I was having an afternoon nap on the couch and I wake up to his barks! I didn't know what the H3** was happening. Then I checked my Attic and found a couple of rats running around. Needless to say, I called the pest control guys .

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